During a couple of recent town halls, it felt as though we had accidentally arrived at Boulder city government meetings—not ones in Colorado Springs. The three At-Large Colorado Springs City Council Members (David Leinweber, Brian Risley, and Lynette Crow-Iverson) invited a private nonprofit group, Braver Angels, to assist with two city town halls. The focus of these town halls was polarization, with homelessness issues briefly mentioned.
Polarization is defined as “the act of dividing something, especially something that contains different people or opinions, into two completely opposing groups.”
The first town hall, in particular, focused on promoting Braver Angels and its mission. According to their website, Braver Angels’ mission is to:
“Inspire and equip Americans to practice courageous citizenship across political differences through skill-building, convening, and collaborative action.”
Sandra Brownrigg, the co-chair for the Colorado Springs chapter of Braver Angels, helped lead both town halls. She denied receiving any funding from the city to organize the events.
We had many concerns following the town halls, which we address below.
The problem isn’t polarization among Colorado Springs citizens. The problem is polarization between the citizens and elected public servants.
We pay close attention and attend many city meetings. We don’t often see citizens behaving poorly toward one another. Differing opinions are common, and that’s perfectly acceptable. The biggest issues arise when public servants make development and policy decisions that run counter to what the majority of affected citizens want. This creates outrage, but it’s not directed at our neighbors—it’s aimed at our elected officials. The public servants stand on one side, insisting they know what’s best for the city, while citizens are on the other, expressing what they don’t want.
It’s far more likely that council members, the mayor, and the new chief of staff are feeling the heat over decisions that are heavily impacting outspoken taxpaying citizens:
- The Ford Amphitheater noise debacle
- Installing affordable apartments where they don’t fit/belong
- Awarding the Colorado Springs Utilities CEO Travas Deal a massive pay raise
- Raising electric rates at the exact time of day residents use electricity the most
- Restricting the use of water to current residents, while continuing to expand the city unrestrained
- The likely upcoming council decision to put a data center near a neighborhood
Also, some council members are smarting over the recent successful recall petition of District 2 City Councilman Tom Bailey. Bailey resigned in the spring to avoid a special election for the District 2 City Council seat. Bailey acted as if citizens were upset with him for no reason, and some council members were disturbed by the recall petition. Bailey egged on citizens over the Ford Amphitheater issue, though. We saw it. Here’s some video. Is that how an elected public servant should treat constituents?
Local elected public servants are likely confusing citizens’ anger at them—over their unpopular decisions—with a so-called “polarization issue” among everyday citizens. Public servants need thick skin and a willingness to listen and truly represent their constituents. A recent positive example occurred at a July town hall, when Tom Bailey’s replacement, City Councilman Ken Casey, hosted his own meeting. Tough questions were asked, and public servants were confronted. Casey handled them very well. Kudos to Casey.
Where are the public-record communications for setting up the Braver Angels town hall?
We filed a Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) request. We asked for text messages and email communications from David Leinweber to the Braver Angels staff regarding the town hall setup, including those from Leinweber’s private cell phones and email accounts, going back to March 1st. We could clearly see that both a city email account and a private email account for Leinweber were listed in many communications about the town hall. The city released no private text message or email communications to us, though. We’ve seen many city council staff use their personal email addresses to discuss city business. That shouldn’t be allowed unless they are willing to release those records publicly. There have been successful court cases regarding the conduct of public business on private text and email accounts. Citizens deserve transparency, but the City of Colorado Springs isn’t providing it.
Data center neighbors were turned away at the door.
Before the 1st Braver Angels town hall, word had gotten out to citizens living adjacent to the potential Garden of the Gods Project Taurus data center. Those neighbors arrived at the door and were turned away, purportedly because they had not registered for the event. The city council members and Braver Angels didn’t want that issue to take away from their perceived pressing discussion about polarization.
A private, nonprofit organization should not stand between citizens and their elected public servants.
Brownrigg said in her opening remarks at the 1st town hall that the city council members were hosting it. At the 2nd town hall, Brownrigg approached us to make sure we weren’t recording small table conversations. She said she had been watching us. When I asked whether it was a public forum where I could record the meeting, she said it was hosted by a private organization and told me I wasn’t allowed to record any conversations at the small-group tables. On the Braver Angels website advertising the town hall, it specified that the “event is open to the media upon approval. Send requests to press@braverangels.org.”
We mentioned the conversation with Brownrigg (about her having a problem with us recording the small-table conversations) to some city staff members at the end of the 2nd meeting. City staff said that Braver Angels didn’t want anyone “grandstanding” at the event. We were told Braver Angels was upset with KOAA news media asking audience members for short interviews and stopped KOAA from interviewing people.
We call this censorship, and city council members allowed it.
Our Take
We have attended countless city meetings over the past nine years. These particular town halls were so troubling that we filed a CORA request and reported our experiences to you.
City council members had no business turning city town halls over to a private nonprofit entity to police speech. If city council members truly wanted to hear from citizens about what matters most to constituents, they would show up at a location, listen to what people wanted to discuss, and allow questions.
This town hall approach has certainly led to polarization: the people on one side and city government on the other.
Take time out of your day and politely let the 3 council members know what you think.
Lynette Crow-Iverson Lynette.Crow-Iverson@coloradosprings.gov
David Leinweber David.Leinweber@coloradosprings.gov
Brian Risley brian.risley@coloradosprings.gov
Here is the full CORA response from the City of Colorado Springs.